Amber Midthunder in PreyPhoto: Hulu
If Twitter buzz is anything to go by, director Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey (available now on Hulu) is much bigger than anything currently playing in theaters. The film is a prequel to Predator, set in 1719, which follows a Comanche woman named Naru (Amber Midthunder) who wants to be a hunter (but is constantly fired, despite her obvious talent and enthusiasm). Eager to prove herself, Naru runs away from home and eventually crosses paths with an invisible alien hunter with a wide range of high-tech weapons – a Yautja, or “Predator” if you’re not in the know.
Like Arnold Schwarzenegger in the original Predator, Prey’s Midthunder carries large chunks of the film on his own, not counting the Predator and his loyal dog Sarii (played by the frustratingly lovable dog actor Coco), and also like Schwarzenegger, comes out looking extremely. great. Not only does it stick to some good action sequences, but its story requires more emotional work than you get in the average Predator movie. Nobody really has emotions in this first movie, except for Bill Duke’s Mac.
But don’t take it from us: take it from Jesse Ventura, who played the sexual tyrannosaurus Blain in the original Predator, so he knows a thing or two about fighting one of these ugly motherfuckers… or at least to die with one, since they killed him. very early in that movie. On Twitter, Ventura welcomed Midthunder to the “Predator family,” saying, “You definitely don’t have time to bleed.” (A nod to his famous line from the first film.) He also tagged Trachtenberg to thank him for making “such a thoughtful, creative and wonderful film.”
Midthunder seems very touched by Ventura’s praise, and has spent the last day or so sharing fan art and reacting endearingly to big-name Hollywood people who have good things to say about Prey on Twitter (retweeted Bryan Fuller, for example, who said he wants an action figure of Naru and thinks he can “hold his own” against Sarah Connor and Ripley).